President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
50%
50%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
70%↑
30%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
April 17, 2007 11:15 PM UTC
16 Comments
My heart goes out to the families….what a sad event.
we could all do to help. Its not like a flood or hurricane where they need volunteers to help clean up, but the familes are all in my prayers.
“I don’t know if it’s one person or ten, and I don’t know what they want. All I know for sure, all I know for certain, is that they weren’t born wanting to do this. There’s evil in the world, there’ll always be, and we can’t do anything about that. But there’s violence in our schools, too much mayhem in our culture, and we can do something about that. There’s not enough character, discipline, and depth in our classrooms; there aren’t enough teachers in our classrooms. There isn’t nearly enough, not nearly enough, not nearly enough money in our classrooms, and we can do something about that. We’re not doing nearly enough, not nearly enough to teach our children well, and we can do better, and we must do better, and we will do better, and we will start this moment today! They weren’t born wanting to do this.”
The West Wing: Episode College Kids
We can’t do anything to prevent this tragedy that has already occurred, but there is plenty we can do to prevent the next one. Such events are exceedingly rare outside the United States (there was that school massacre in Scotland several years ago, but, aside from fundamentally different forms of mass violence, like the gas attack on the Japanese subway and the Islamic Jihad terrorist attacks, these completely random acts of mass violence are mostly an American phenomenon). It’s reasonable to conclude that we are simply doing something wrong. I’ve argued elsewhere that I think our weak gun control policies are partly responsible, but there is more to it than that.
I think ol’ Jeb was getting close to it: We don’t give our kids enough guidance. I really believe that. Sorry, folks, but letting kids drug themselves on violent video games is just not a healthy way to raise children. Parents need to be involved in what choices their kids make, and to limit those choices when necessary. Schools need to be able to play an assertive role, rather than cowering in fear of offending someone (I got in trouble for emailing a mother whose kid was flunking every class and who was in many ways headed toward personal self-destruction with the advice that she take control of the situation, because I knew the details of what was going on at home, and knew that they were a contributing factor). Communities need to become a reality again (see the conversation about iPods and cell phones and the loss of “public space”). All of these things are contributing factors, and we are, collectively, responsible for not addressing them.
We can’t rewrite the reality of our world, but we can take affirmative steps to cultivate the kinds of social institutions that would move us in a healthier direction. We need to take care of each other, even the silent, brooding Asian guy who is wierding everyone out, *before* they explode. We need to rebuild communities, be willing to intervene, create social safety nets for people to fall into when they lose their balance. We need to be something more than a bunch of isolated individuals each lost in his or her own little world. We need to reach out to one another.
In most part
When I was a kid, few mothers worked. When you hit the street after school, there was a mother in every house. You didn’t get away with shit, and if one mother observed some inappropriate behavior, by the time you got home, YOUR mom was waiting with a “Tell me about what I heard and it better make sense” look.
I think that our society has gained greatly economically and in global competiveness by tapping into the other 50% of our intellect, especially as women have moved into professions. But have we paid another price? I know several “Mr. Mom” scenarios; the wife can and does earn more than the husband. Fine.
As Thom Hartmann points out from time to time, part of the Republican stategy is to make American families unable to live even modestly on one income. Even Teddy Roosevelt said that the American worker should be able to support a family with good education, vacations, and old age income. A Republican!
Therefore, we have both parents working to make even modest ends meet. No time for the kids, the PTA, the Knights of Columbus.
We are reaping what has been sowed.
“As Thom Hartmann points out from time to time, part of the Republican stategy is to make American families unable to live even modestly on one income.”
What, did he come across some secret “Vast Right Wing Agenda” booklet?
If so I got to get me one of those! 🙂
…alongside The Gay Agenda!
While I don’t think that gets published on the daily Talking Points, I have no doubt that for the movers and shakers that is an often unspoken, deep, desire. Having parents exhausted at the end of the day means less civic participation. Now THAT has been stated, that the fewer who vote, the better off “we” (the Pubs)are. I’ve heard the audio clip a number of times.
The gay agenda….good times. Probably a more busy day than the “Conservative Agenda”-being fabulous is pretty freaking hard.
We should come up with the Conservative and Liberal agenda.
but if you were to see it, I’d have to kill you. Naw, too violent. Bop you with a whiffle stick.
and the continuing emancipation of women from traditional roles has meant that the lost functionability of those roles has yet to be compensated for. I wouldn’t solve the problem by condemning half the population to one career choice, regardless of their personal preference, though I do applaud those women who choose to stay home and be full-time mothers (as well as those men who choose to stay home to be full-time dads). It’s a noble calling.
The challenge, then, is how to accomodate both the rights of women to both have children and have careers, just as men do, and the needs of children to have the degree of supervision and attention they had when women lacked those rights. I think we’ll get there.
As for the right wing agenda, I am loath to attribute such wide-spread cynicism to half the american population. While I disagree with the argument, I believe the rationale behind the voting issue is that it is better for democracy not to try to get the apparently indifferent to vote (indifference being inferred from the fact that they currently do not vote). The fact that it benefits the party of those who make the argument undoubtedly makes the argument more attractive, but I don’t think that it is what most of them tell themselves is their reason for supporting it. And I seriously doubt that there is any organized or conscious effort to tire out the american worker so that they are unable to be involved in political decision making. I think that these phenomena are the result of much more decentralized processes, and have little to do with conscious intention.
Or Grover Norquist?
Or Richard Viguerre?
No, I don’t think the Republican voters at large get this, or else they would be voting Dem. I’m referring to the kinds of guys mentioned.
in both parties play that game, undoubtedly.
More than women in the workplace, more than ipods and video games, I think American mobility has much more to do with our lack of social cohesion. It’s more normal to move around, neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, or state to state than it is to stay in the same house for long. People and politicians pay lip service to small towns and their cohesive communities, but big cities used to have that same sense of community in their neighborhoods, and people born in those neighborhoods more often got jobs, spouses, and homes in those neighborhoods, just as those from small towns often lived their whole lives there.
But the whole United States is a mobile community now. Realizing our dreams means pursuing opportunities where they are, and they often aren’t where we come from anymore. But it’s also a result of companies not being loyal to their employees, giving them raises just for staying on the job and not laying them off just to boost the bottom line. People move around either because they can’t get ahead at one job or because they lost that job and sometimes the next opportunity is across the country. Also, the consolidation of business into bigger and bigger companies often mean people transferring interstate. How much effort are you going to make to know your neighbors when either you or they are moving all the time?
While there was a downside to neighborhood/small town cohesion (an insular, us-against-them attitude regarding “outsiders”) but there’s no doubt that they were safer for children and better for creating a sense of stability that they need. We’ve lost that, probably for good.
People moved a lot in the old times, too. That’s how “the west was won” insofar as the far west. But it was going on when “the west” was Ohio. We have the definable migrations of the blacks moving north in the post WWI era, the Okies to California, etc. The residents of all those small towns came from somewhere to start with.
My kids grew up in Longmont in the 70’s and 80’s. You couldn’t have asked for a better place to raise kids. Good, clean schools, good families, bonding things like the Pet and Doll Parade every year. All a kid had to do was show up with a pet or a doll and nobody really cared if you had neither!
Denver and Boulder are close enough for a little adult fun when Mom and Dad need a break, too.
But it happened less, and when it did I bet a majority (if not vast majority) did it only once. Some families move several times while the kids are growing up, and not just those in the military. The kind of rooted family you had, and I was fortunate enough to grow up in, is becoming a rarity.